Salinas Police make 12 arrests in 40 homicides

The death of 49-year-old Efren Castro marks the 40th homicide investigation of the year in Salinas. Police say his body was found in a car on Kimmel Street on Christmas morning.
His death brings the city’s homicide tally to 40, beating out the 2009 record of 29. Police had previously said the 2009 rate was all gang-related. That wasn’t the case this year.

There have been several high-profile cases this year, including the shooting near the Social Security Office that killed Oliver and Felicidad Legaspi. Sammuel Ejaz is currently in custody at the Monterey County Jail. The deaths of 3-year-old Delylah and 6-year-old Shaun Tara are also included in this year’s tally. Two people, Tami Huntsman and Gonzalo Curiel have been charged with first-degree murder in that case.

Police say at this point, the solve rate is about 30 percent, about a dozen arrests have been made.

One particular crime is the hardest to crack, because of fear of retaliation.

“Gang related homicides are the most difficult to solve for a variety of reasons,” said Salinas Deputy Chief Dan Perez. “We have a lot of problems with cooperation. A lot of times witnesses will not cooperate and oftentimes the victim, him or herself will not cooperate.”

That’s not the only challenge that officers face. Deputy Chief Perez says the department is under “crisis staffing,” facing a shortage over the last four to five years. Not only can officers make more money in other cities, he admits Salinas is a hard city to get started in.

“This is a difficult city for a young person to start off in as a police officer because of the pace and the rate you have to learn at is so quick,” Deputy Chief Perez said.

One of the unsolved cases is around the city’s first homicide of 2015. Twenty-five-year-old Paul Morales, Jr. was found shot to death outside of his apartment in North Salinas on Jan. 7.
“I still feel like my heart is bleeding every second of the day,” Melissa Garner, Morales’ mom, said.

But she has faith that the Salinas Police Department will solve it.

“It’s onward with the fog,” Garner said. “So no matter how thick it may be in front of us, we have to continue to walk forth because I know they are doing what they have to do and they have a lot of cases to resolve.”